People in the Swedish city of Malmo on Tuesday evening (January 23) welcomed Turkey's approval of Sweden’s bid to join NATO which clears the biggest remaining hurdle to expanding the Western military alliance after 20 months of delay, Reuters reports.
Turkey's general assembly, where President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling alliance holds a majority, voted 287-55 to approve the application that Sweden first made in 2022 to bolster its security in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also welcomed the Turkish parliament's approval.
Erdogan is expected to sign the legislation within days, leaving Hungary - whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban has friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin - as the only member state not to have approved Sweden's accession.
